A stapler is used to bind a plurality of overlapped sheets. Such a stapler generally uses a metal staple. However, when a sheet is incinerated or shredded, or when a sheet is recycled, it is necessary to remove the metal staple for differentiation, which takes effort. In addition, in the case of a food-related use, it is desired to avoid a mix of an iron staple which is a foreign matter. In this regard, there is a stapler which uses a nonmetal staple made of paper, synthetic resin, or the like which does not require such an effort (see Patent Literature 1).
The stapler using such a nonmetal staple binds a plurality of sheets in such a manner that the through hole is formed in the sheet, the nonmetal staple formed in a U shape is inserted from one surface side of the sheet, and staple legs of the nonmetal staple protruding to the other surface side of the sheet are bent.
For this reason, the stapler includes, at least, a penetration mechanism which moves up and down a pair of right and left cutting blades capable of holding the U-shaped nonmetal staple with respect to the sheet, and a bending mechanism which bends the staple legs of the nonmetal staple, which protrude to the other surface side of the sheet, inward along the other surface of the sheet, and sticks the right and left staple legs to each other.
In order to enable continuous operations, a plurality of nonmetal staples are connected in a flat state to be a belt-shaped connection staple.
The stapler includes a transportation mechanism which transports a tip of the belt-shaped connection staple along a transportation path, and a cutting forming mechanism which cuts the nonmetal staple positioned in a top one by one from the tip of the connection staple transported by the transportation mechanism and performs forming in a U shape. The nonmetal staple cut and formed by the cutting forming mechanism is loaded between the pair of right and left cutting blades of the penetration mechanism by the above-described transportation mechanism.
Additionally, the belt-shaped connection staple is wound in a roll shape in order to make the connection staple longer and easier to use. Further, the stapler has a structure which can handle a roll-shaped connection staple.